Adam recently expressed interest in knowing what my office setup is like. So I figure that's a good topic for a Tuesday afternoon. :-)
I've got three dev machines that I use regularly, and one testing machine that I use whenever the mood suits me. Two of the four machines are my own personal computers, and two are from work.
My testing machine that I use on occasion is my personal laptop. It's currently running Windows 2003 Server, because I figured we don't have enough testing on that platform as it stands. The machine has a 40 GB HD, 2.8 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM. It's a nice little machine; the same one I brought with me to PDC. A little on the heavy side though, I think it weighs in around 7 lbs. It's such a monster because I got the super huge power draining screen with it. :-P But hey, it does 1600x1200, which is what I need in order to be happy. The laptop's name is Ptolema.
The next three machines all share a monitor and are hooked up via a KVM switch.
My main dev machine is also a personal machine, but that's because it's the main machine I use for personal things as well. I don't want to feel bad about installing a game on a work machine. :-P It's obviously a Windows box (Dell PC), and it's currently dual-booting between Windows XP and Windows Vista Beta 1. I tend to do most of my work in XP since the CodeWarrior remote debugger stub does not work in Vista. As soon as I can figure out how to debug the framework on Vista, then I'll probably use that as my main OS so that we get plenty of early testing on it. The main dev machine has a 40 GB HD, 768 MB of RAM, 1.6 GHz processor and my really old GeForce2 card in it (with a whopping 32 MB of video RAM! wooohooooo!). The machine's name is Chimera.
Then I have the Mac Mini, and it's used only for doing work in CodeWarrior on the framework and for checking bugs out in the feedback system. It's got 1 GB of RAM, because 10.4 and CodeWarrior are absolute pigs. Seriously, I started out with 512 MB of RAM and it was unusable. It's got a 1.25 GHz G4 processor in it, and yet another 40 GB HD. It's running 10.4, which IMO, is actually a step down from 10.3. I find the new UI distracting, and it broke more stuff than I care to whine about (the two most annoying would be CW's debugger and Samba connections to my PC). This machine's name is Manticore.
Finally, we come to my Linux box. This was my old work machine when I was in Austin, and is a 1.4 GHz, 256 MB RAM (stripped the other 256 out to stick into my main dev box), and another 40 GB HD. This machine is currently running SuSE 9.1, but I'll be switching it over to Novel Linux Desktop (NLD) fairly soon. I use it mostly for fixing Linux bugs and just generally playing around. This machine's name is Slyph.
All three of those machines are hooked up to my 21" CRT monitor via the KVM switch. I run all three at 1600x1200 since I need screen real estate and am a glutton for punishing my eyes. It's funny though, because 1024x768 seems so large and chunky to me, and I remember when I used to drool over hardware that was capable of such high resolutions.
In terms of other pieces of hardware around the office... I have a 240 GB external firewire HD that stays hooked up to my main PC. It is mostly used for backups, but I also keep my extensive music collection on there. I've got assorted serial networking oddities around here, including dozens of cables, a breakout box, an RS-232 tester, etc. Of course, the whole network is rather fun: my cable modem plugs into my hardware VPN box which then plugs into my wireless router. All the machines except the laptop are wired though, because the throughput on wireless is crap. I've got a webcam (from Creative, WebCam Live! I think) and a microphone hooked up to the main PC so that I can keep in touch with Lis better.
Obsolete machines laying around: enough spare parts to build about 2 more PCs minus ATX cases and mobos. An iMac, which qualifies as one of the worst purchases I've ever made considering that I never use the thing. I've still got my first laptop ever, a Gateway with a whopping 2 GB HD and a 1 GHz Pentium with MMX technology! Wahoo! And that's it for defunct machines -- I did a lot of house cleaning before I moved back to MN.
So that's the office equipment. Any questions? LoL
Heh, I'd have to agree about 10.4 being not quite an upgrade. It's more of moving sideways and slightly down... However, I've seen no problems with Samba shares.
What kind of iMac is yours?
Oh, and maybe you'd take pics of your setup =), and as a tangent, I just recently took pics of my setup: http://sirg3.homeip.net/images/room/ (old Macs just for atmosphere, can't think of any use for them).
-- SirG3
LoL. The issue I've been seeing with Samba is quite annoying -- try this out. Send a file from the Mac to Windows via smb (in the Finder, not on the command line). Then delete the file on Windows (and its ._ file too). Now transfer the same file over again. For me, this crashes the Finder almost every time.
My iMac is one of the space-alien looking types. It's white, and slow. :-P
I've got some office pics here and here
Pics of my workspace here: http://www.wetworx.com/sections/cam.html
Aaron: your office looks too clean to be used =P.
-- SirG3
Those pictures were taken about 10 minutes after I got the office setup. Trust me, things look different now. Slightly more cluttered. ;-)
Thanks for the entry. Very interesting...
The Mac mini running on a 4200 RPM drive doesn't exactly help. I read about one guy hacking to run off an external firewire drive and it boosted overall system performance quite a bit. Weird, eh? :^) Of course naming your computer seems weird too ;^)
(Oh I missed the pictures....)
@Aaron! You're not doing the desk justice! You need 4 widescreen monitors all side by side... now that'd be impressive :^D
@SirG3/Joe: Doesn't the green make you ill after a long time? :) Are you and iDevGames guy? I see the MGP book on your shelf...
You can see a view of my pad (dirty socks and all) taken the night before leaving for WWDC here: http://www.freaksw.com/temp/RoomWWDC.jpg
Seth: Nah, the blueish green (greenish blue?) doesn't bother me at all -- I hand picked the color =). And unfortunately no, I'm not an iDevGames guy -- I could write a game if my life depended on it. Having the book and being able to do it are two very different things. Whoa, no fair -- a G5...
-- SirG3
Yeah, you "cleaned up" by leaving hardware with me when you moved out... including a "21" inch CRT that ended up being just a 17 inch one. And a PC that didn't work. I started out by trying to replace a part here and there, and by the end of the day I had a brand new computer built from scratch. :P
But alas, I got rid of the monitor this last week, and I'm not actually sure where that PC ended up. Probably in some closet around here. :P
When we had our Coffee Shop/Internet Cafe I had a lot of mismatched computers (about a dozen) and spare parts. At the time, I had more PCs than I had Macs because they were cheaper.
NowI have cut that down quite a bit, and only have four computers...
1. 12" Powerboom 1.5 Ghz G4, 512 MB, 60 GB HD -- primary development
2. Dual 1 GHz G4 PowerMac Tower with 768 MB RAM and total of nearly 300 GB of disk space... basically I only use the computer right now to play iTunes (a waste eh?)
3. Acer 15" WXGA Celeron M 1.5 Ghz with 512 MB and 40 GB HD.
4. Single 400 Mhz G4 PowerMac Tower with 768 MB and 80 GB HD currently in the closet but is designated for OS 9 testing.
Seth... there is nothing wrong with naming your machines, besides it makes em easier to find on the network. My main systems are:
1) A Sony Viao laptop running XP called Isis
2) My main system a 20" flat panel iMac called Monolith
3) An aging Cube (which makes a nice file/web server) called Navi (Anyone seen Lain? ;) )
Yes Kevin, I've seen Lain, and I find that's a very appropriate term for a computer. But something tells me you need up upgrade your Navi. ;-)
So I'm going to admit to my own personal geekdom with this:
Can't help think of MegaMan NT Warrior and NetNavi's when I saw that reference to "Navi" :P
I never said there was something wrong with naming your computer. I've named mine. I have "Seth's G5" and "Seth's iBook" :-)
ha! Mine are "Dreadnought" (G5 tower), "Serena" (PowerBook), and "Sir Richard Burton" (Sony Vaio).
Since nobody asked:
My frankstein PC is King_Ghidora
My G5 workstation is Godzilla_2000 (natch)
And my iBook is Rodan.
LoL, why am I not surprised at the Godzilla references? :-P
When I setup the network at work I got to choose all the NetBoot names for the machines (the name that appears on the login window). Seeing as we have more alcohol in the place than most offices I named every machine after an alcoholic drink. We have everything from Gin to Tequila!
It's quite amusing when using remote desktop; I'll often ask one of the girls "are you on Absinth or Aftershock?".
On a less amusing note, at my old Primary School a friends and I set up a large Mac network and all the machines were named after philosophers and scientists. We managed to sneak our own surnames in with Einstein and Plato!